Three new high-speed rail stations — Miaoli, Changhua and Yunlin — are scheduled to open today, Taiwan High Speed Rail Corp (THSRC) said yesterday.
The first trains to serve the three stations are due to depart from Taichung at 6:30am, with one scheduled to arrive in Miaoli at 6:50am, and the other two to reach Changhua and Yunlin at 6:44am and 6:50am respectively.
The company said that more than 3,100 tickets have been sold departing from the three new stations on the opening day, while more than 2,300 tickets have been sold that arrive at the three new stations.
According to the past behavior of high speed rail customers, an estimated 60 percent of passengers buy their tickets on the day of departure, making it difficult to estimate the effect of the addition of the three new stations on passenger numbers, the company said.
The additional stations will increase the number of stops form eight to 11 and cut the number of non-stop express Taipei-Kaohsiung trains by 30 percent, while Taipei-Kaohsiung trains that stop at all stations would take 138 minutes and are due to run once an hour.
To celebrate the opening of the new stations, the company is to offer special discounts between today and Dec. 15, including free tickets for passengers who arrive at or depart from one of the new stations.
Between today and Monday next week, souvenir tickets marking the opening of the new stations are to be issued to passengers who use the stations. In addition, the price of a one-way ticket for regular Taipei-Kaohsiung trains is to be cut to NT$1,490 from NT$1,630.
The 345km high-speed rail system was inaugurated in January 2007. The other eight stations are Taipei, New Taipei City’s Banciao (板橋), Taoyuan, Hsinchu, Taichung, Chiayi, Tainan and Zuoying (左營) in Kaohsiung.
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